Latest streaming news & insights for the week

According to reports from beIN media group, the official broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 revealed early data showing that viewers in the Middle East and North Africa watched the opening ceremony and the first round of group stage matches on its flagship channel beIN Sports more than a billion times in total.

In comparison to the network’s coverage of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, the figures show a 113% rise over the same 16-match span. 24 MENA countries will be able to watch the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 matches exclusively on beIN Sports.

In MENA, 111.7 million adults watched the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022’s official Opening Ceremony, according to IPSOS data. The first 16 group matches reportedly attracted 900 million viewers. 99.2 million of those viewers saw just the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador, an increase of 86% from the opening match of the tournament in Russia in 2018.

99.3 million people saw Saudi Arabia play in the second-most watched match of the tournament so far, as they defeated Argentina 2-1 in a stunning comeback. Click here to read more.

NHL FAST is a new free, ad-supported streaming service launched by the National Hockey League which will only broadcast shortened versions of Stanley Cup Playoffs, Stanley Cup Final, and NHL All-Star Games; it will not broadcast live games during the regular season.

NHL Center Ice, a streaming subscription service offered by the league, allows users to see more than 1,000 out-of-market games that aren’t shown on local or national TV. $69.99 is the season’s price. NFL+, a $4.99 per month premium streaming service, was introduced in July of this year.

Sports leagues have also had ad-supported cable TV networks including NBA TV, MLB Network, and NHL Network for a number of years. Local blackouts may occur, however some networks can still broadcast games. As fundamental cable TV channels, these channels are available on cable systems.

Another ad-supported cable network is NFL Network. “Thursday Night Football” was simulcast or broadcast exclusively for many years. TNF games are only broadcast on Amazon Prime Video as of this season. Click here to read more.

With the passing of Thanksgiving, there is no doubt that the holiday season has officially begun. It follows that the annual line-up of unique holiday and Christmas-themed films produced by organizations like the Hallmark Channel is now available on TVs all around the world.

The research division at Whip Media recently conducted a survey to learn more about the viewing preferences of consumers who favour these low-key, relaxing flicks. The study discovered that when it comes to Christmas movies, people strongly associate both linear TV and streaming services. When the topic of made-for-TV Christmas movies is brought up, Hallmark comes to mind first, followed by Netflix and Lifetime.

Because cable channels like Hallmark and Lifetime have extensive collections of this type of holiday fare, they can offer a wall-to-wall selection of movies that allow viewers to repeat their favorite’s while also trying out the newest releases.

Although not all streaming users savour the yearly deluge of holiday films accessible at this time of year, those who do are fiercely devoted. Although Hallmark is the most popular choice for these viewers, streaming services are becoming more and more common in their holiday movie viewing habits. Click here to read more.

DirecTV and DirecTV Stream viewers can now choose to subscribe to and watch the Discovery+ streamer’s ad-supported version through the DirecTV interface, and they will save money in the process.

Customers who pay $4.99 per month for the ad-supported streaming app from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will save $2 on their video subscription. Two years after Discovery+’s debut, and only months before Discovery+ and HBO Max are scheduled to join in spring 2023, the partnership could assist grow the subscriber base for ad revenues.

The deal could help DirecTV, which, like other pay-TV companies, continues to lose subscribers, in its efforts to gain new customers and retain existing ones. According to Leichtman Research Group, U-Verse, the satellite service, and the internet Stream service collectively lost 400,000 members in the most recent quarter (Q3 2022) and an expected 1.9 million users in 2021. Click here to read more.

According to Amperes’ research, 64% of this type of programming was based on well-known characters and plots. While Apple TV+ heavily relies on pre-existing IP (53% of all new Originals in the year to the end of H1 2022), studio-backed platforms like Paramount+ and Disney+ typically have the highest IP-based commissioning because they use internal—and primarily US-based—IP and franchises for their new commissions.

However, Ampere claims that as these studio platforms steadily expand internationally, their market share is rapidly declining. Disney+’s first half of 2022 saw a decrease from over 60% of its global new originals output in 2020 to 35% of IP-based titles.

Ampere found that although Unscripted Reality and Entertainment content increasingly uses pre-existing formats for remakes, spin-offs, or reboots, the percentage of IP-based titles is still lower for Unscripted than Scripted commissions overall. Click here to read more.